COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT DETERGENT FORMULATIONS ON SURFACE, MECHANICAL AND DYEING PROPERTIES OF COTTON FABRICS

Abstract

Detergent is one of the major agents of cleaning we have today due to their ability to combine with hard water without forming scum with the salt present in it. Fabrics users are usually concerned about care, durability among other things, hence the careful choice of detergents to be used during laundering activities. Different brands of detergents are present in our markets and some of their effects are not well known on fabrics. In this work, nine (9) brands of detergents that are locally available were gotten from Oja Oba market, Akure and used to wash two different types of fabric to determine the effects of each detergent brand on them. The washed samples of the fabrics were analysed using scanning electron microscope and tensile strength tester. Investigations into the wettability and dye uptake of the laundered fabrics were also carried out. The tensile strength revealed that sample washed with Waw brand has the highest tensile strength of 59.76 Mpa while Canoe brand shows the least with 37.21 Mpa. The percentage dye uptake results shows Sunlight have the highest percentage dye uptake of 38.68 % and Nittol has the lowest percentage dye uptake of 35.93 %. The study showed that all investigated brands of detergent have similar soil removal efficiency, dye uptake and minimal damage on the fabrics.